Experts: Suicides at schools rare

Apr. 30, 2013

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Cathy Strunk, a Children's Hospital nurse, talks to students at Kings High School about identifying problems that could lead to suicide. She directs Surviving the Teens, a suicide prevention program. / File

About teen suicide

Cathy Strunk’s Surviving the Teens program offers help and guidance to about 7,000 Greater Cincinnati students annually. It also offers workshops for parents. Here are some facts, tips and resources about suicide prevention. Reasons for suicide among teens.

Suicide is almost always a response to an undiagnosed mental illness, usually depression. The person feels they are alone or don’t fit in, and that they are worthless to the point that people can go on without them. “What they really want is to escape the pain they’re in,” said Cathy Strunk, a registered nurse who directs Surviving the Teens, a suicide prevention program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Three things usually trigger suicidal behavior:

• Rejection: A breakup, blowup at home or bullying incident. • Humiliation: anything from bullying to failing a subject in school to sexual abuse. • Disciplinary crisis such as incarceration. How to prevent suicide

Suicide has two components: the desire to die and ability to do so. Some ways to prevent it are: • Look for warning signs such as frequent sadness, hopelessness, decreased interest in activities, social isolation, low self-esteem, illness, frequent absence from school or anxiety. Consult mental health professional for help. Teenagers may be at greater risk of suicidal thoughts if they have witnessed suicide or been exposed to violence and trauma. Family history of depression or suicide is also a risk factor. • Restrict their means. Rid your house of potentially deadly items such as pills or guns. Even if the gun is locked up, the fact that it’s there can fuel suicidal behavior. How to help:

The Surviving the Teens program uses the acronym L.A.S.T. L: Let someone know what’s troubling you A: Ask for and accept help S: Share your feelings T: Tell an adult or crisis counselor. Where to get help

An estimated 4,600 young people commit suicide every year in the United States, and local experts say for each actual suicide there are an estimated 100 to 200 other attempts.

Sometimes, these happen in public. Sometimes at the person’s own schools.

That’s what happened Monday morning when a La Salle honors student shot himself in a classroom with 22 other students present. He was in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center Tuesday morning.

La Salle spokesman Greg Tankersley told reporters Monday the question of “why” Joseph M. Poynter, 17, of Cleves, attempted to take his life will be left for the teen’s family to comment on.

But the “where” and “how” – that he did it with a gun at his school – points to someone who wants help, experts say.

“Typically, when you see a public display like this, a gun ... it would be fairly indicative he’s trying to express how much pain he was in,” said Keith King, assistant professor of health promotion and education at the University of Cincinnati. “I don’t think it’s an indictment of anyone, it’s just how much pain he was in and he wanted others to see that.”

Acting out private pain in such a public way is a way to tell people “I don’t know what to do. I want it to stop. I don’t know how to stop it,” said King, who has spent 15 years researching adolescent suicide. “Often they just want to put an end to the pain they feel, not necessarily their life.”

Attempts with guns at schools are rare. But they do happen.

• In March, an eighth grade boy shot and killed himself in a school bathroom at Davidson Middle School in Southgate, Mich., a suburb of Detroit.

• In February, a high school freshman shot and killed himself in a school bathroom in the Coweta school district, a suburb of Tulsa, Okla.

• Also in Oklahoma, an eighth grade boy shot and killed himself in September in a hallway at Stillwater Junior High, about 70 miles outside of Tulsa.

And then there are the mass shootings, homicide-suicide incidents like the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Conn., when Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

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Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth between ages 10 and 24, according to the National Center for Disease Control. The top three methods are firearms suffocation and poisoning

Statistics were not available for how many suicides occurred in schools. Locally, though, they’re practically unheard of.

“The last (suicide at a school) I heard about at a school was close to 20 years ago,” said Cathy Strunk, a registered nurse who directs the Surviving the Teens suicide prevention program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Xavier University’s Karl Stukenberg, associate professor of psychology and department chair, said public displays are becoming more common nationally.

“We are seeing an increase in very public activities of this sort,” he said.

Stukenberg said when someone goes public with their suicide, it means something.

“Suicide is something we are really well protected against by millions of years of evolution,” he said. “We’re self-preservative. So we have all kinds of fail-safe devices in front of us to protect us from destroying ourselves.”

“The speculation I have on this is ... one way of (working) yourself up to do something would be to create it as something else. As theater, as a mission, as something that is noble, as something that is accomplishing another goal. Self-destruction is not a goal that makes sense to us.”

The person may be trying to send a message to survivors.

“A universal component of the aftermath of suicide is (survivors) go back and forth between guilt and blame. Does it make sense that someone might want others to feel responsible or guilty? Sure,” said Stukenberg.

Stukenberg said media attention may have an impact too. “These are individuals who are vulnerable, but there’s also a social component,” he said. “Society is creating this phenomenon of very public acts of violence, whether inflicted on themselves or on others. We don’t have a good handle on what is the basis of that.”

Experts said the key to prevent such incidents is for parents, friends, community members and school officials to constantly be looking for signs and getting teens the help they need.

“It’s a comprehensive effort,” said Strunk. “Everyone has to be involved. I’m just heartsick about what happened to this young man. This is what we work to prevent.”